DIY Narwhal Pillowcase

This post is brought to you by Cricut. All opinions are 100% my own. Post contains affiliate links.

Narwhal’s are pretty popular in our house. The kids are always running around singing “Narwhal, Narhwal swimming in the ocean, causing a commotion, because he is so awesome!” And recently my daughter ordered an adorable Narwhal book from a school book order. When I received my new Cricut EasyPress, I couldn’t wait to make something with it, so after consulting the kids, we decided on a DIY Narwhal Pillowcase for my daughters room! Never heard of the EasyPress? Learn what the Cricut EasyPress is!

Along with the new EasyPress, I tried the Foil Iron-On Vinyl for the first time as well. This stuff is amazing! It goes on easy and looks great on fabric – I love the reflective properties and how it reflects differently depending on where you stand in relation to it! I definitely recommend giving it a try.

Back to the Narwhal pillow! I designed an adorable Narwhal design for a pillowcase, using the saying that my daughter dictated: “I am a narwhal, a happy little narwhal!” which came from her book, Narwhal: Unicorn of the Sea. But when I showed her the design, she told me it wasn’t the style she was hoping for… so back to the drawing border until we ended up with this:

Cute, right? Want to be able to make your own pillow? Or t-shirt, or notebook?! Don’t worry, I’ll share the Narwhal SVG file with you so that you can create your own cut file. Keep reading!

Open a new project in Cricut Design Space and upload the SVG file. Follow the directions on the screen.

Once the design is uploaded, insert it onto your mat.

Resize to fit your canvas – the total width of my project ended up at about 19″ – the text was 11.5″ wide and the narwhal was 8″ wide.

There is a bit of prep work to get the file ready to cut.

Click on the image and then click “Ungroup”.

Click on the text and then click “attach”. This will ensure that the layout of the text stays the way we want it, rather than moving the letters around!

If the mouth was moved when you imported, simply click on it and move it back into place. Then select the mouth and both eyes by holding the shift key while clicking each image. Now click “attach”. Repeat this process for the stars and diamonds that are grouped together.

Now it’s time to get cutting! Click the MAKE IT button in the top right corner. MAKE SURE TO CHOOSE MIRROR IMAGE before sending the cuts to the machine. For some reason the software would not allow me to do this. I simply went back to the mat, selected everything and then flipped the image horizontally so that it was a mirror image of itself. Click MAKE IT NOW again. Follow the directions on the screen. Set the material to Iron On. If you’re using the foil iron on, the colored side of the iron-on gets place face down on the cutting mat.

Once the file has been cut, weed the vinyl using a weeding tool. Trim the plastic film to just around the designs (I had not done this for the sparkles and bubbles in the picture above).

Now it’s time to add the vinyl to the pillowcase!

Plugin the Cricut EasyPress. Following the chart that came in the box, set the heat on the EasyPress to match your material. I set mine to 285 degrees for the foil iron on.

This project requires layering the iron-on vinyl, which can be tricky. You don’t want to melt the iron-on by using too much heat, so do this slowly and carefully, avoiding already pressed vinyl as much as possible. Follow the instructions below to see how I achieved this project.

I laid a towel on my countertop and then laid the pillowcase on top. I placed my narwhal and the text where I wanted it on the pillowcase. Once the EasyPress was heated, I simply placed it on top of the text and applied firm pressure. I pushed the “C” on the machine and held it in place until it beeped. I continued this until I had pressed all of the text. When using the EasyPress do not move it around like an iron, simply keep it in place for the allotted time, pick it up, move it to another part of the design and repeat.

Do not remove the plastic protective sheet from the text until the entire design has been pressed. This will protect it from the EasyPress.

Repeat the same process until the entire narwhal has been pressed.Remove the protective film and place the face on the body and the white horn on the head. Place the protective film back over the body and press the face and horn. I only kept the EasyPress in place for 20 seconds and then carefully removed the film from the body, face and horn.

Place the horn swirls on top of the white horn. Place the sparkles and bubbles where you want them around the narwhal. Replace the protective film over the body, and press the horn and face again, for the full 30 seconds.

Finish pressing any sparkles and bubbles that were missed, trying to avoid already pressed foil. Once complete, remove all protective film from the pillowcase.

Flip the pillowcase over and press the entire backside of the pillowcase.

You’re done and you’ve got an adorable masterpiece!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut. The opinions and text are all mine.

About Kim Conner

Kim is a Marketing Director by day and Crafter/Blogger by night. She lives with her husband, three beautiful children, and shih-tzu, Mushu. For even more Inspiration Made Simple, like her on Facebook, Instagram+, or follow along via Twitter!

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